Volleyball Heads For West Virginia Classic This Weekend

The Week Ahead: Butler heads to Morgantown, W.
Va. this weekend when it takes part in the West Virginia Volleyball
Classic beginning on Friday (Sept. 7). The Bulldogs take on East
Tennessee State on Friday at 5:00 p.m. before battling host West
Virginia and Indiana State on Saturday (Sept. 8).

Previewing the Bulldogs: Butler will enter the
West Virginia Volleyball Classic with a 2-5 record after claiming a
win over Tennessee Tech in the opening match of the Butler
Invitational last weekend. Sophomore Porshia Allen paces
the team on offense after putting up two of her best single-match
performances of her career in the past two weeks, notching 26 kills
against Hofstra at the Orange and Green Challenge (Aug. 25) before
tallying 28 against Tennessee Tech on Aug. 31. She leads the
Bulldogs with 4.32 kills per game. Freshman Jessica Wolfe has
consistently been one of the team's best offensive and defensive
producers in her rookie season, ranking second with 3.22 kills per
game and third with 2.89 digs per game, while fellow freshman Katie Daprile
has added 1.74 kills and 3.19 digs per game. Senior Michelle
DeGeeter has been the top blocker on the squad with 1.33 per
game and has added 2.67 kills and 1.81 digs. Junior Dana Daprile and
sophomore Brittany Awai have
split time at setter, with Daprile averaging 6.12 assists per game
and Awai totalling 4.73 per game. Junior Nina Inic leads the
team with 5.48 digs as the top defensive specialist.

Recapping Last Week:August 28 - Xavier 3, Butler 0Porshia
Allen tallied her first double-double of the season, ripping a
team-high 12 kills and adding 10 digs, but host Xavier put the
Bulldogs in a 2-0 hole before holding on for a close decision in
the third game in claiming a 30-26, 30-22, 33-31 victory. The
Musketeers used stifling defense to hold the Bulldogs to just 36
kills and a .083 attack percentage.

Butler Invitational - August 31-Sept. 1 -
Indianapolis, Ind.August 31 - Butler 3, Tennessee Tech 1Porshia
Allen made the Bulldogs' 2007 home opener a memorable one,
breaking her career high for kills with a match-best 28 in helping
Butler back from an opening game defeat to top Tennessee Tech,
27-30, 30-25, 32-30, 30-21, at the Butler Invitational. Jessica Wolfe
notched her third double-double of the year with 14 kills and 19
digs, while Michelle
DeGeeter finished in double-figures with 12 kills of her
own.

Sept. 1 - Northern Illinois 3, Butler 1
A late match rally by the Bulldogs in the final match of the Butler
Invitational came up short of a comeback, as Northern Illinois hung
on for a 30-22, 30-25, 28-30, 30-24 decision. Porshia Allen and
Michelle
DeGeeter each posted double-doubles, with Allen recording 15
kills and 13 digs and DeGeeter going for 15 kills and 16 digs.

All-Tournament Honors: Sophomore Porshia Allen and
senior Michelle
DeGeeter were both honored as members of the Butler
Invitational All-Tournament Team. Allen came a dig away from
notching three-straight double-doubles in the tourney while
tallying a career-high 28 kills in the opening match. DeGeeter,
meanwhile, added a pair of double-doubles in the three matches.

Off To A Great Start: Sophomore outside hitter
Porshia
Allen has been nearly unstoppable on offense to start the
season, leading the team and ranking second in the Horizon League
with 4.32 kills per game. In fact, the Indianapolis native is way
ahead of her team-leading pace from last year, notching 108 kills
through just seven matches. With only a quarter of the regular
season completed, Allen has already totalled more than a third of
her final tally from 2006 (315).

A Wolfe Among Bulldogs: It didn't take long for
freshman Jessica Wolfe to
get comfortable in the collegiate game. The 6-0 Plainfield, Ind.
native paced the team with 18 kills in her first college match
against Jacksonville on Aug. 24 in helping the Bulldogs to their
first win of the season. She followed up that performance with
back-to-back double-doubles against Hofstra and Miami on Aug. 25,
including another 18-kill performance against the Pride. She
currently ranks second on the team with 3.22 kills per game and
third with 2.89 digs per game.

Dealing Aces: The Bulldogs certainly had a few
aces up their sleeves against Jacksonville on Aug. 24; fourteen of
them, to be exact. Butler's total is a single-match high in the
Horizon League this year and was just three shy of tying the school
record of 17, set against both Western Illinois and Xavier in 1990.
Junior Chloe'
Blasingame paced the team with a career-high five aces, while
junior Dana
Daprile tied her career mark with four.

Digging The Record Book: With her 30 digs
against Jacksonville on Aug. 24, junior Nina Inic etched her
name into the Butler record book, tying for the ninth-most in a
single match. This is nothing new to the Belgrade, Serbia native,
however, as Inic essentially re-wrote the single-match records for
digs last season. Three of the top eight single-match marks in
Butler history were registered by the defensive specialist in 2006,
including a career-high 40 digs against Green Bay for the
third-highest total all-time. Meanwhile, her 35 digs at Green Bay
rank sixth-most, while her 32 against Loyola are eighth-most.

Double Trouble: The rest of the Horizon League
already had their hands full trying to contain one Daprile, and now
they have twice as much to contend with. Older sister Dana leads
the squad with 6.12 assists per game as the team's primary setter
and is second on the team in blocks per game (0.73). Younger sister
Katie, meanwhile, has already made an impact in her first
collegiate season, ranking second in digs per game (3.19), third in
assists (1.15) and fourth in kills (1.74).

Home Sweet Home: After criss-crossing the
Midwest for much of October, the Bulldogs will spend the final
three weeks of the season playing in the friendly confines of
Hinkle Fieldhouse. Following a three-week, six-match road trip that
takes the Bulldogs through Chicago, Dayton, Cleveland, Youngstown
and Valparaiso, Butler returns home on Oct. 21 to host
non-conference foe UMKC. From there, the Bulldogs welcome Wright
State (Oct. 26), UIC (Nov. 2) and Loyola (Nov. 3) to Indianapolis
before closing the regular season the following weekend by hosting
Green Bay (Nov. 9) and Milwaukee (Nov. 10).

Up Next: After concluding tournament play in
West Virginia, the Bulldogs open up both the dual meet slate and
the Horizon League season next weekend when they welcome Youngstown
State to Indianapolis on Sept. 14 at 7:00 p.m. Butler then hosts
Cleveland State at Hinkle Fieldhouse the following afternoon (Sept.
15) at 4:00 p.m.